105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #761189

CHEST,FRACTURE,HEAD,TELECOM WORK,FALL,UTILITY POLE

Event
CHEST,FRACTURE,HEAD,TELECOM WORK,FALL,UTILITY POLE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
761189
Report ID
453710

Event description

FALL - FAILURE OF UTILITY POLE

Investigation abstract

A TELEPHONE LINE WORKER WAS REPLACING TELEPHONE LINES. THE EMPLOYEE CLIMBED A 30 -FOOT CLASS 6 UTILITY POLE WITHOUT TESTING THE POLE BEFORE HE CLIMBED IT. THE EM PLOYEE WAS WORKING AT THE TOP OF THE POLE WHEN IT BROKE OFF AT GROUND LEVEL. THE EMPLOYEE FELL WITH THE POLE TO THE GROUND. THE POLE FELL ON TOP OF THE EMPLOYEE CAUSING FRACTURES TO HIS CHEST AND HEAD AND RESULTING IN THE EMPLOYEE'S DEATH.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 57 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    5
    Source
    42
    Occupation code
    527
    Human factor
    12
    Environmental factor
    13
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    Task assigned
    1

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.